Cassowary Crossing

In the word-puzzle biz, I’ve clocked up my fair share of overtime skulking dictionaries. Not always with success. Occasionally, seeking a definition, I’ve hit a double-dose of obscurity.
Want an example? Most of these mind-bogglers, to run across the week, hail from the Macquarie [Third Edition], where the printed meaning does little to provide much meaning […]

As “ruined aviators” and “latterday bogfolk” shamble across Cormac McCarthy’s Road, I found a few head-scratching words amid the same eloquent debris. Here are Cormac’s Obscure Seven, this time defined:
gryke: cleft limestone
riprap: accumulated foundation of stones in a waterway
gambrel: gabled roof with the lower side steeper
firedrake: cousin of the dragon
dentil: tooth-like projection repeated within a […]

“Creedless shells of men tottering down the causeways like migrants in a feverland…”
One quote, and you get the hang of Cormac McCarthy’s apocalypse, as captured in his latest novel, The Road. In the space of three pages the wasted world is described as a “cauterised terrain” bathed in the “autistic dark” - or “the grudging […]

The last of the best - eight clues plucked from the pages of The Times, The Guardian and The Independent, as well as a few from sources closer to home. See how many Cryptic Clues of Repute you can nail.
1. Part with wartime scotch (6) _ H _ _ […]